Friday, 27 March 2015

We are in the middle of a spate of birthdays and they seem to be mostly male. They are all milestone ones too but not of the 18th, 21st or 30th variety! Guess I just have to face up to reality, I'm definitely what would be called "middle aged".

Today's card was made for one of those birthdays.

The green stripe is shiny and thank goodness in real life doesn't look like it has a finger print right in the middle of it.

Wednesday, 25 March 2015

Last week we took our Grade 3 boys on an outing to the local aquarium. As though taking 88 nine years olds out for the day wasn't bad enough we were just one of five school who were visiting that day. The one school had 300 pupils with them! To say that it was noisy, stressful and tiring would definitely be an understatement!

Today's card is the ipitomy of being under stated.

It's soft pastel colours and simple repetitive design are very calming to me.

To make the pattern I used a flower design from Erica Fortgens and copied it a number of times before pasting the designs in the corner of the paper. Once I had stitched them I hand drew the frame around the edge of the topper in a very fine felt tipped pen.

I used the same pattern to make some smaller cards too. These are 6cm x 7.5cm

Monday, 23 March 2015

I decided to submit a second entry into the challenge at Butterfly Challenge.
I have so many ideas that fit perfectly into the theme of patterned paper so I just had to add another one.
The first of these three cards is my favourite.

although this one is pretty too......

I love this striped paper, I'm just not so sure that I should have stitched over it in yellow, oh well!

Friday, 20 March 2015

Sometimes I am drawn to really simple designs for my cards. That is why I like Ardyth's designs over at Maskarade. Todays card is CASed from one of hers.

I tried it in a variety of different colours and choose to use Rayen thread as I wanted to add a bit of subtle interest with the shine.

Here is one up close

I cut a circle in the topper. Stitched my flower on a smaller piece of card stock and adhered it to the back of the topper. Then I adhere a piece of paper in the same colour as the flower to the body of the card. Lastly I used foam dots to attach the topper to the card. I added some glitter around the edge of the circle and a flat backed gem to complete.

Wednesday, 18 March 2015

I have just finished writing my first term reports for school. I handed them over today to be checked. Hopefully there won't be too many mistakes to correct. This means that there are only three weeks left of this term, can't believe it!

I am enjoying working with kraft paper at the moment. Today's card is made using card stock in the same.

Usually I like the combination of kraft and turquoise but somehow this one turned out a little too dark for my liking, not sure why. I added the gold Stickles to try and lift it a bit.

Monday, 16 March 2015

The new challenge at Butterfly Challenge is Butterfly and patterned paper. Like all good crafters I have masses of paper so this was an easy one for me.

Here is my entry.

and just for good measure I made a second one.

I cut a circle in the patterned paper, placed it onto the white card stock and marked where my butterfly needed to be. Then I pricked the pattern before stitching it in rayen thread. I wanted it to be shiny. Seed pearl beads finished the body.

Monday, 9 March 2015

I am a great puruser of fetes and markets. There is lots of rubbish up for sale but every now and again you will stumble onto something worthwhile. The button on this card is such an example.
I found it at a fete for a retirement village close to my home. It was part of a very old sheet of buttons. All different but white. The sheet looked like something a sales rep would take to a prospective customer for them to order from. There are some really lovely buttons on there, a cute little hat with a ribbon and the sweetest little lamb. I snapped the entire thing up for next to nothing. The price was so ridiculous that I made a donation of my change. It was money well spent.

A friend turned 50 this weekend. This is the card I made for him.

I distressed the edges with red ink and the white star is one of the buttons that I bought, I just cut the shank off.

Thursday, 5 March 2015

Last week I was asked to run a stitched card course for a group of ladies who have never been introduced to the Prick and Stitch method before. This is the card we made.

I prepared all the elements that the ladies would need to make the card. They just needed to complete the stitched section and then assemble it. I have found that this is the best way to run a course as if the stitching is not completed within the time frame then at least the card can be made up later.

Tuesday, 3 March 2015

For this card I reduced the stitching pattern to 50% and stitched it in white. I stitched straight onto the cerise paper and then adhered that to the card stock upper. As the holes for the stitching were now very close together I had to reinforce the back with some sticky tape, which I stitched through.

The embossed lines where drawn using my Crafter's Companion. I did the silver outline around each hexagon by hand, they are not prefectly straight but that was the look I was going for. To finish I added three pink flat backed gems.

Edited to say that I am very excited. This card has won me my first ever badge (see left hand margin). Thanks Mrs A

About Me

Hi, I'm a Junior Primary phase teacher by profession, that means I teach 9 year olds. A wife and a mother to a delightful ginger, four legged, furry child. I love beautiful stationery and even in this age of technology I still think there is nothing better than sending, or receiving, a lovingly filled envelope in the post. To me it means "caring"

Pinspirational challenges winner

Dragonfly Challenges

CAS Colors and Sketches

Uniko Studio

Sugar pea designs

Butterfly Challenge

Pinsirational Challenges

Challenge #184

CAs Colours and sketches Winner

Challenge #217

Pinspirational Challenges

#190

Pinspirational Challenges

Challenge #191

Pinspirational

Challenge #198

Pinspirational Challenge

#203

Disclaimer

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